Border shooting response defended

Federal, state agents unleashed barrage at Mexican smugglers.

WESLACO — Answering a smattering of gunshots with a 300-round barrage should show drug runners, their inflatable rafts full of contraband, that Texas law enforcement officers aren't messing around, authorities said Friday.

“You shoot a police officer, you're going to be shot back at,” Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw said, dismissing any notion that the U.S. response to an early morning shooting Thursday by Mexican drug runners on the Rio Grande was over the top.

An initial DPS news release said the U.S. officials came under “heavy gunfire.”

At a news conference, McCraw said the drug runners first threw rocks at U.S. law enforcement officers, followed by four to six gunshots.

He said a single shot against a U.S. law enforcement officer is “one too many.”

“We are going to use overwhelming force. ... You shoot a law enforcement officer, you're going to get return fire,” he said.

At least three alleged Gulf Cartel operatives were wounded in the Thursday morning shootout and McCraw said it was possible one or more of the drug runners died.

He said Mexico was investigating on its end, with officials on the U.S. side considering the incident “an attempted capital murder of both Texas police officers and Border Patrol agents.”

McCraw, leading a news conference attended by dozens of high-level state and federal law enforcement officials, praised the officers' response. He said Texas has a “zero tolerance” policy regarding attacks against U.S. law enforcement.

The bad guys fired first, McCraw said, recounting an incident that began at 6:18 a.m. Thursday, when three Texas Parks and Wildlife boats and one Border Patrol boat approached a red Dodge Durango waiting on U.S. riverbank near Mission.

Officers then saw the raft full of drugs, he said. As they approached the raft, large, jagged rocks flew from the Mexican side of the river, wounding two game wardens. The rocks were followed by four to six gunshots.

Texas Rangers, state game wardens and U.S. Border Patrol agents, operating a unified “Ranger Reconnaissance” mission, fired back big time, spraying some 300 rounds.

“They encountered force, and we will appropriately respond to that force, and we will go home at the end of the day, and we will protect ourselves, and we will protect our citizens,” Parks and Wildlife Col. Peter Flores said. “That's not negotiable.”

Mexican military, arriving some three hours after the exchange, seized the inflatable raft with its load of about 400 pounds of marijuana. No arrests were made.

Gov. Rick Perry touts the Ranger Recon missions as adding state resources to federal ones along the Texas-Mexico border.

McCraw said it was the first time state law enforcement had taken fire on the river, though not Border Patrol, members of which were shot at as recently as September.

He said the attack showed the increasing brazenness of the cartels, which routinely conduct sophisticated “splash down” smuggling operations involving retrieval teams, blocking vehicles, road spikes and safe havens on the Mexican side.

McCraw said there had been at least 44 high-speed chases over the past 18 months, most ending with the drug runners splashing back to safety on the other side.

Interdiction of two similar rafts Wednesday netted U.S. officials 1,200 pounds of drugs.

“They will not comply, they can't be arrested, they really scoff at what we do,” McCraw said. “They're out-manning us.”